System and methods for arabic text recognition based on effective arabic text feature extraction

ABSTRACT

A method for automatically recognizing Arabic text includes building an Arabic corpus comprising Arabic text files written in different writing styles and ground truths corresponding to each of the Arabic text files, storing writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files, digitizing an Arabic word to form an array of pixels, dividing the Arabic word into line images, forming a text feature vector from the line images, training a Hidden Markov Model using the Arabic text files and ground truths in the Arabic corpus in accordance with the writing-style indices, and feeding the text feature vector into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize the Arabic words.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates generally to automatic recognition of Arabic text.

Text recognition, namely, automatic reading of a text, is a branch of pattern recognition. The objective o f text recognition is to read printed text with human accuracy and at a higher speed. Most text recognition methods assume that text can be isolated into individual characters. Such techniques, although successful with Latin typewritten or typeset text, cannot be applied reliably to cursive script such as Arabic. Previous research on Arabic script recognition has confirmed the difficulties in attempting to segment Arabic words into individual characters.

Arabic language provides several challenges for text recognition algorithms. Arabic scripts are inherently cursive and it is unacceptable to write isolated characters in block letters. Moreover, the shape of an Arabic letter can be context sensitive; that is it can depend on the location of the letter within a word. For example a letter as

has four different shapes: isolated

as in

, beginning

as in

, middle

as in

, and end

as in

. Furthermore, not all Arabic characters are connected within a word. It can be difficult to automatically determine boundaries between words because spacing may also separate certain characters within a word. Additionally, some Arabic text are written with vowelization while others written without it; some Arabic text ignore Hamza and the points under Ya letter at end of word; some Arabic text contain words from non-Arabic languages.

Different classification systems such as statistical models have been applied to text recognition of Arabic text. However, properly extracting text features still remains as a major hurdle to achieve accurate Arabic text recognition.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The systems and methods described in the present application provide comprehensive, quantitative, and accurate techniques for extracting features in Arabic text. The disclosed Arabic character recognition is also more efficient and takes less computation time then some conventional techniques. The disclosed systems and methods are also simpler and easier to use than some conventional techniques.

The present application further discloses an intelligent adaptive method for building an Arabic corpus. The disclosed method can take in account different Arabic writing styles such as with or without punctuations, with or without vowelizations, with or without a non-Arabic language, etc. The different writing styles for Arabic text files used for Arabic corpus building can be selected by a user, or automatically set by a computer. The Arabic text files are properly indexed based on these writing styles to provide more accurate training and to recognition of Arabic text. The Arabic character recognition is improved because there is a structured catalog of different writing styles of Arabic text used as knowledge base for the character recognition.

In a general aspect, the present invention relates to a method for automatically recognizing Arabic text that includes building an Arabic corpus comprising Arabic text files and ground truths corresponding to each of the Arabic text files, wherein the Arabic text files include Arabic texts written in different writing styles; storing writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files by a computer, wherein each of the writing-style indices indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles; acquiring a text image containing a line of Arabic characters; digitizing the line of the Arabic characters to form a two-dimensional array of pixels each associated with a pixel value, wherein the pixel value is expressed in a binary number; dividing the line of the Arabic characters into a plurality of line images; defining a plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images, wherein each of the plurality of cells comprises a group of adjacent pixels; serializing pixel values of pixels in each of the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images to form a binary cell number; forming a text feature vector according to binary cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images; training a Hidden Markov Model using the Arabic text files and ground truths in the Arabic corpus in accordance with the writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files; and feeding the text feature vector into the Hidden Markov Model to recognize the line of Arabic characters.

Implementations of the system may include one or more of the following. The method can further include: converting the binary cell number into a decimal cell number; serializing the decimal cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in the one of the plurality of line images to form the string of decimal cell numbers; and forming the text feature vector in accordance to a string of decimal cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in the one of the plurality of line images. The writing styles can specify with or without punctuation in the Arabic text. The writing styles can specify with or without vowelization in the Arabic text. The writing styles can specify the existence or nonexistence of a non-Arabic text in the Arabic text files. The step of building an Arabic corpus can include receiving an input form a user relating to a writing style associated with one of the Arabic text files. The step of building an Arabic corpus can include automatically determining a writing style associated with one of the Arabic text files by the computer, wherein a writing-style index associated corresponding to the writing style is automatically stored in association with the one of the Arabic text files. The two-dimensional array of pixels can include a plurality of rows in a first direction and a plurality of columns in a second direction, wherein the line of Arabic characters can be aligned substantially along the first direction, wherein the plurality of line images are sequentially aligned along the first direction. The two-dimensional array of pixels can include N number of rows of pixels, wherein at least one of the plurality of line images has a height defined by M number of rows in the first direction and a width defined by N number of columns in the second direction, wherein M and N are integers. N can be in a range between 2 and about 100. The pixel values in the two-dimensional array of pixels can be expressed in single-bit binary numbers. The pixel values in the two-dimensional array of pixels can be expressed in multi-bit binary numbers.

In another general aspect, the present invention relates to a method for method for automatically recognizing Arabic text. The method includes building an Arabic corpus comprising Arabic text files and ground truths corresponding to each of the Arabic text files, wherein the Arabic text files include Arabic texts written in different writing styles; storing writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files by a computer, wherein each of the writing-style indices indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles; acquiring a text image containing a line of Arabic characters; digitizing the line of the Arabic characters to form a two-dimensional array of pixels each associated with a pixel value; dividing the line of the Arabic characters into a plurality of line images; downsizing at least one of the plurality of line images to produce a downsized line image; serializing pixel values of pixels in each column of the downsized line image to form a string of serialized numbers, wherein the string of serialized numbers forms a text feature vector; training a Hidden Markov Model using the Arabic text files and ground truths in the Arabic corpus in accordance with the writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files; and feeding the text feature vector into the Hidden Markov Model to recognize the line of Arabic characters.

Although the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to multiple embodiments, it will be understood by persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and details can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is an exemplified flow diagram for the steps of Arabic text recognition in the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a text image containing Arabic text.

FIG. 3A illustrates the division of the text image into a plurality of line images each containing a plurality of pixels.

FIGS. 3B and 3C illustrate pixels and pixel values in a portion of the line image shown in FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method of text feature extraction in accordance with the present application.

FIG. 5 is an exemplified flow diagram for the steps of text feature extraction shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 illustrates another method of text feature extraction in accordance with the present application.

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrates another text feature extraction method in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating the steps of text feature extraction shown in FIGS. 7A-7D.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram for an intelligent adaptive method for building an Arabic corpus.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplified index structure embedded with selected writing-style options for the processed Arabic text files for building an Arabic corpus.

FIG. 11 illustrates a text image containing Arabic text that includes a plurality of words.

FIG. 12-14 are flow diagrams for Arabic text recognition in according to some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a general flow of Arabic text recognition in accordance with the present invention. An Arabic corpus is built using an intelligent adaptive method that determines and tracks writing styles of the Arabic text (step 100, FIG. 1). As discussed in more detail below in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10, the Arabic corpus includes text and text images and the ground truth (i.e. known meanings) associated with the text or text images in accordance with the present invention. The corpus building takes into account of many writing styles and formats in Arabic text, and the text files in the disclosed Arabic corpus are properly labeled by the types of Arabic writing styles or formats, which increases the accuracy of Arabic character recognition when the disclosed Arabic Corpus is used. Writing-style indices are stored in association with the Arabic text files (step 105). The writing-style indices each indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3C, a text image 200 is acquired from an Arabic text document (step 110, FIG. 1). The Arabic text in the text image 200 may be arranged in multiple text lines 211-214, each including a string of cursive Arabic characters. A text line 211-214 is divided into a plurality of line images 311-313 (step 120, FIG. 1). A line image 311, 312, or 313 is then divided into pixels 321-323 each assigned with a pixel value (step 130, FIG. 1). The width of a line image 311, 312, or 313 can be in a range between 2 pixels to 100 pixels, or in a range between 3 pixels and 10 pixels. A line image 311, 312, or 313 can include a complete character, a partial character, or joint characters.

A pixel value represents the intensity value of the text image 200 at the location of a particular pixel. In one implementation, a high intensity value can represent a light image color (or low density) at a pixel that may be in the white background. A low intensity value can represent a dark image color (or high density) at a pixel that may be within a stroke of an Arabic character. The pixel values can be represented in different numerical system such as binary, decimal, and hexadecimal numbers.

Referring to FIGS. 3A-3C, the line image 311 includes an image portion 320 that includes a plurality of the pixels 321-323, each of which is assigned a binary pixel value “0” or “1”. A pixel value “1” represents a white background. A pixel value “0” represents a dark image color (i.e. low intensity) within a stroke of an Arabic character. It should be noted that the disclosed systems and methods are also compatible with multi-bit binary pixel values, which can represent image densities in multi-tone levels (e.g. grayscale).

In accordance to the present disclosure, text feature vectors can be extracted from the text line 211 or the line images 311-313 (step 140, FIG. 1). Details about various implementations of text feature extractions are discussed below in relation to FIGS. 4-8. The exact form of the text feature vectors can vary depending on the extraction methods, as described below.

The feature vectors obtained in step 140 are next fed into a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) (step 150, FIG. 1). In the present disclosure, the HMM can be implemented by a Hidden Markov Model tool kit (HTK), which is a portable toolkit for building and manipulating hidden Markov models. HTK is lexicon free and depends on character models and grammar from training samples. The HMM provides probabilistic interpretations can tolerate variations in the patterns found in feature vectors. Much of the functionality of HTK can be built into the library modules available in C source code. These modules are designed to run with the traditional command line style interface, so it is simple to write scripts to control HTK tools execution.

The HMM can be trained using feature vectors obtained from Arabic text and associated ground truth in the Arabic corpus in accordance with writing styles of the Arabic text (step 160, FIG. 1). As discussed below in relation with FIGS. 9 and 10, the writing styles are indicated by writing-style indices stored in association with the Arabic text files. HTK is provided with a character model and a ground truth for training samples. The character modeling component takes the feature vectors and the corresponding ground truth and estimates the character models. The observations produced by the training samples are used to tune the model parameters whereas those produced by the testing samples are used to investigate the system performance. Each state in the model represents a letter in the alphabet set, and each feature vector is equivalent to one observation. HTK training tools can adjust the character model parameters using the prepared training data to predict the known data transcription.

The HMM parameters were estimated from a ground truth for the training image segments. The text and ground truth are generated by an Arabic corpus builder using an adaptive method described below in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10. This segmentation may also be applied to the contour to find segmentation points, extract the features from these segments, and then transfer the feature vectors into an observation sequence. The segmentation-based technique used dynamic programming to match word image and strings. The training phase takes scanned lines of text coupled with the ground truth, which is the text equivalent of the text image, as input. Then, each line is divided into narrow vertical windows from which feature vectors are extracted.

The trained HMM is then used to recognize Arabic text in the feature vectors using a dictionary and a language model (step 170, FIG. 1). The recognition phase follows the same step to extract the feature vectors which are used with different knowledge sources estimated in the training phase to find the character sequence with the highest likelihood. The recognition tool requires a network to describe the transition probabilities from one model to another. The dictionary and language model can be input to the tool to help the recognizer to output the correct state sequence.

In some embodiments, referring to FIGS. 3A-5, an Arabic corpus is built using an intelligent adaptive method that determines and tracks writing styles of the Arabic text (step 500, FIG. 5). As discussed in more detail below in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10, the Arabic corpus includes text and text images and the ground truth (i.e. known meanings) associated with the text or text images in accordance with the present invention. The corpus building takes into account of many writing styles and formats in Arabic text, and the text files in the disclosed Arabic corpus are properly labeled by the types of Arabic writing styles or formats, which increases the accuracy of Arabic character recognition when the disclosed Arabic Corpus is used.

Writing-style indices are stored in association with the Arabic text files (step 505). The writing-style indices each indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles.

The line image 311-313 generated by the corpus builder is digitized into an array of pixels 321-323 each characterized by a pixel value (step 510, FIG. 5). The line image 311, as shown in FIG. 4, is divided into a plurality of cells 410-460 (step 520, FIG. 5). Each cell 410-460 includes a group of adjacent pixels, such as an array of 3 by 3 pixels. For example, the cell 420 includes pixels 422, 423 and other pixels.

The pixel values in each cell are next represented by a binary cell number (step 530, FIG. 5). The pixel values in each cell are first serialized. For example, the nine pixels 322-323 in the cell 420 are serialized in the order of the three consecutive rows: 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0. The series of binary pixel values are then mapped to a 9 bit binary cell number. The pixel value in the pixel 322 is mapped to the most significant bit while the pixel value in the pixel 323 is mapped to the least significant bit. As a result, the pixel values in the cell 420 are represented by a 9-bit binary cell number 111100100. Similarly, pixel values in the cells 410-460 are converted to binary cell numbers 480, each of which being in a range between 0 and 511.

The binary cell numbers in the cells of a line image 311 are next converted to decimal cell numbers 490 (step 540, FIG. 5). The decimal cell numbers 490 are then serialized to from a feature vector for the line image 311 (step 550, FIG. 5). The steps 520-550 are repeated for different line images.

Similar to step 160 (FIG. 1), a HMM can be trained using feature vectors obtained from Arabic text and associated ground truth in the Arabic corpus in accordance with writing styles of the Arabic text (step 560). As discussed below in relation with FIGS. 9 and 10, the writing styles are indicated by writing-style indices stored in association with the Arabic text files. The feature vectors from the different line images 311-313 are then fed into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize Arabic characters in the text line (step 570, FIG. 5).

The extraction method described above in conjunction with FIGS. 4-5 represents an implementation of the text feature extract for the process illustrated in FIG. 1. It should be understood that the above described text feature extraction methods are compatible with multi bit pixel values and other numerical representations in the data string. For example, pixel values can be represented by 3-bit or 5-bit binary numbers, which can capture grayscale information (or multi-tone) in the text image. Multi-bit pixel values may improve accuracy of describing text features along the edges of the strokes.

Moreover, instead of a binary number, the pixel value can be represented in any number range between a minimum value and a maximum value. In some implementations, the pixel values can be linearly scaled (or normalized) to a predetermined range such as [0, 1] or [−1, 1]. The pixel values can then be quantized. Feature vectors can be obtained similar to the steps 530-550.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 6, a line image 610 is scaled down in resolution (i.e. downsized) to form a downsized line image 620. For example, the line image 610 can have a height of 60 pixels. The downsized line image 620 can have a height of 20 pixels, a factor ⅓ in dimensions. The downsized line image 620 is digitized to form an array 630 of pixels each represented by a pixel value. The pixel values in each column in the array 630 are serialized to form a binary number. The binary numbers from the different columns form a data string 640, which forms a feature vector. Feature vectors obtained from line images of a text line can be fed into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize Arabic characters in the text line (step 570, FIG. 5).

In some embodiments, the method shown in FIG. 6 can be extended to be based on individual Arabic word, instead of a line of Arabic text. The line image 610 can be obtained from the image of an individual Arabic word (e.g. 1121 1122, or 1123 in FIG. 11 below). Next, the steps of image downsizing, digitization, serializing pixel values in a column of pixels, feature vector extraction, and Arabic character recognition can be conducted.

Referring to FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 8, a line image 700 is digitized into an array of pixels (step 810, FIG. 8) similar to step 510 (FIG. 5). The pixels are arranged in a plurality of columns. The pixel values are represented by single-bit binary numbers having values of “1” or “0”. The pixel values in each column are serialized to form a string of single-bit binary numbers (step 830, FIG. 8).

Next, as shown in FIGS. 7C and 7D, frequencies of consecutive pixels having same binary pixel values of “0” and “1” are computed (step 840, FIG. 8). The frequencies are counted up to a cut off transition number. The frequencies are tabulated to form the frequency counts 750 and 760 (step 850, FIG. 8). To distinguish two columns of pixels having the same number of transitions but complimentary pixel values, for example,

$\begin{matrix} 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{matrix}$

the frequency count is conducted by starting to count the number of “1”s from the top pixel in a column. The column on the left thus first has a “0” count of the pixel value “1” followed by “3” counts of the pixel value of “0”. The complimentary pixel values in the two columns will result in the following frequency counts:

$\begin{matrix} 0 & 3 \\ 3 & 2 \\ 2 & 2 \\ 2 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 \end{matrix}$

It should be understood that the initial pixel count at the beginning of each column can also be conducted on a pixel value “0” without deviating from the spirit of the present invention.

Each row in the tabulated frequency counts 750, 760 (in FIGS. 7C, 7D) represents a transition in pixel value, from a white background (having a pixel value of “1”) to a dark text area (having a pixel value of “0”), or vice versa. To compress data, the frequency count is cut off at a maximum transition number.

The frequency counts in each column of the tabulated frequency counts 750, 760 form a feature vector (step 860, FIG. 8). Thus a column can also be referred as a vector in the currently described embodiments. The feature vectors from different columns in the line image into a Hidden Markov Model (step 870, FIG. 8).

The maximum transition number is determined by a statistical analysis on a large sample of Arabic text. As shown in Table I, approximately 99.31% of the columns have six or fewer transitions. In other words, a vast majority of text images can be properly characterized by selecting the cut-off transition number at six.

TABLE 1 Transition Count in Corpus Transition Number Within a Column Column Count Percent 0 3003663 18.44% 1 95418  0.59% 2 7694625 47.24% 3 74196  0.46% 4 4231776 25.98% 5 45013  0.28% 6 1028765  6.32% <= 6    99.31% 7 7403  0.04% 8 94771  0.57% 9 900  0.01% 10  9543  0.05% 12  1367  0.01% More than 12 transitions  0.01%

When building an HMM based system, the type of the feature vectors to be used in training and testing this system is first defined. Feature vectors can be categorized as continuous type and a discrete type. In the systems using continuous feature vectors, an array or sometimes a matrix of coefficients to feed the models are used. In the discrete systems, a single coefficient is fed into the model. Vector quantization means converting the continuous vectors to discrete vectors, and this can be done using HQuant and HCopy tools which come with HTK. The HQuant is used to build the codebook from the training data to be used later with the HCopy tool to produce the discrete vectors. Codebook building affects the performance of the system depending on its size, and is affected by the amount of data used to build it. HQuant uses the Linear Vector Quantization algorithm to build the codebook and this is computationally an expensive algorithm to compute. In the present disclosure, a new method named the Unique Vector Quantization (UVQ) is introduced to reduce the calculation time and to improve the performance of the system. This method focuses on reducing the number of feature vectors used to build the codebook using the Linear Vector Quantization algorithm by deleting the repetitions of feature vectors and hold just a single copy of each feature vector. As shown in Table 2, the number of feature vectors within the corpus is greatly reduced.

TABLE 2 Unique vectors count within corpus Corpus Lines Unique Vector Reduction Count Vectors Count Count Percent 10,000 lines 12,285,426 413,410 96.64% 15,000 lines 16,288,252 591,673 96.37%

When we tried to build a codebook using all the feature vectors of 2000 different line images, we found that the maximum size that can be built for this codebook is 728. The time taken to build this codebook was about 9 hours instead of 1 hour and 30 minutes taken to build a 1024 size codebook from the unique feature vectors only. The recognition rates from these experiments using mono models are shown in Table 3. When unique feature vectors are used with the Linear Vector Quantization algorithm, codebook size is increased. The computation time is reduced by a factor of six, and the recognition rate increased.

TABLE 3 Recognition rates for unique vector count Recognition Codebook Type Codebook Size Building Time Rate Without Using 728 9 Hours 83.59% UVQ Using UVQ 1024 1 Hour and 30 85.22% Minutes

Adaptive Arabic Corpus Building

An Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system needs a corpus, that is, a dataset, for training and recognizing Arabic characters. A corpus includes two major parts: first, a set of pages, articles, lines, words, or character images; and secondly, the ground truth which represents the equivalent text of the set of pages, articles, lines, words, or character images.

Building a corpus is a tedious and time consuming task: it involves scanning the target documents, and performing supervised segmentation in order to provide the required samples for training and testing. Moreover, corpus building involves the task of typing the text equivalent to the text image needs.

For the Arabic languages, extra effort and time are needed in corpus building due to the diversity in Arabic writing styles: some Arabic text are written with vowelization while others written without it; some Arabic text ignore Hamza and the points under Ya letter at end of word; some Arabic text contain words from non-Arabic languages. For these reasons, it is difficult to find and prepare a corpus that contains the different formats of Arabic text.

To overcome the above described difficulties, the present application discloses an intelligent adaptive method for building Arabic corpus. The disclosed method is capable of converting Arabic text in any format or writing-style as chosen by a user or by a computer. Examples of these options can include: add or delete vowelization, add or delete hamza and the points under Ya letter at end of word, and add or delete words from other languages. The disclosed method allows to the user or the computer to choose font type and font size. The disclosed method can also demonstrate sample text in the chosen format.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 9, the disclosed Arabic corpus building method can include one or more of the following steps: the method starts with checking if there are files to be processed (step 910). The files refer to the set of pages, articles, lines, words, or character images that are used to build the Arabic corpus for training purpose.

If there are files to be processed, the method checks if the Arabic corpus is to enable non punctuation (step 915)? If the answer is yes, a non-punctuation corpus is built (step 920). The text lines are read line by line. “HAMZAH” and the dots for “ALYAA ALMAQSOORAH” are removed from any word containing one or both of these Arabic letters.

After the punctuations are removed (in step 920) or if non punctuation is not to be enabled (step 915), the method checks if the Arabic corpus is to enable vowelization (step 925)? If so, the text lines are read line by line. The vowelization for each word depends on the grammatical role of that word in the context of the text. The output is Arabic text read from the files completed with vowelization (step 930).

After the vowelization is completed (in step 930) or if vowelization is not to be enabled (step 925), the method checks if the Arabic corpus is to enable multiple languages? (step 935). If so, the user or the computer is allowed to choose the non-Arabic languages that he wants to include in the Arabic corpus. The non-Arabic letters and words that appear in the text lines read from the files are translated into Arabic language (step 940).The Arabic text comprising the translated words are used in the multi-language Arabic corpus.

If the Arabic corpus is not to enable multiple languages (step 935), the number of lines in each of the text files obtained from steps 915-930 are verified (step 945). The method makes sure that each text file does not contain more than a predetermined maximum number of lines (e.g. 100 lines). The text files having more than the maximum allowed number of lines are divided into multiple files each having lower than the maximum number of lines.

After steps 940 and 945, the text files obtained by the processing steps so far are indexed by writing-style indices (step 950). Writing-style indices effectively and accurately label the text files with information collected or produced in the processing steps.

The presently disclosed method is compatible with different index structures. For example, a writing-style index can contain eight digits: first two digits can represent the writing-style options that the user or the computer has selected for processing in steps 915-945. For example, in the first two digits, 00 can mean no writing-style option has been selected; 01 can mean the first option being selected, and so on. Third and fourth digits represent the font type; fifth and sixth digits represent the font size that has been selected; seventh and eighth digits represent the file location in the folder.

FIG. 10 shows exemplified coding of the first two digits of the writing-style index for selected writing-style options. The options in steps 920, 930, 940 (i.e. non punctuation, vowelization, and multi-language) are respectively referred to as the first, the second, and the third options. As mentioned above, 00 can mean none of the options has been selected. 01, 02, and 04 respectively represent only one of the first, the second, or the third options has been selected. 03, 05, 06 each represents two out of the three options are selected. 07 is designated to the case when all three options are selected.

The Arabic text files are properly indexed based on these writing styles to provide more accurate training and recognition of Arabic text. For example, the disclosed Arabic corpus allows automated distinction of Arabic text having or without punctuation, having or without vowelization, and with or with multi-language, which enables more accurate associations of Arabic text in different writing styles with ground truth. The Arabic character recognition is improved because there is a structured catalog of different writing styles of Arabic text used as knowledge base for the character recognition.

The text processed by the previous steps and properly indexed can be converted into image(s) (step 955) for the user to review and verify. Each text file is converted into an image associated with the text file. Then the image is divided into several line images each named with the text file name and a line sequence number. The line sequence number can be in a range of 0 and 99 (for a maximum line number of 100).

It should be noted that in the above described methods, the different writing styles or text formats can be selected by a user, or by a computer. A computer algorithm can for example set a default setting to take into account all three writing style options. The computer algorithm can also automatically analyze the text files (pages, articles, lines, words, or character images) used for corpus building to dynamically determine the writing styles to be taken into account in the processing the text file. For example, a computer can detect existence of a non-Arabic language in a text file and automatically translate the non-Arabic language to build a multi-language corpus. The computer can also dynamically determine status of punctuation or vowelization in each text file that is used in corpus building. The text images are automatically labeled to indicate the detected writing styles as described above. A writing-style index associated corresponding to the writing style is automatically stored by the computer in association with the one of the Arabic text files.

Arabic Text Feature Extraction and Recognition—Arabic Word Based

Referring to FIG. 11, a document 1100 can include multiple text images 1101-1103 and one or more photographs 1104. The text image 1101 for example includes an Arabic text that is arranged in multiple text lines 1111-1114. Each text lines 1111-1114 can include one or multiple Arabic words 1121-1123 that are composed of one or a string of cursive Arabic characters.

In some embodiments, the text image can analyzed to identify the text lines as well as words in the Arabic text in the text image. The Arabic text recognition methods described above in FIGS. 1, 5, and 8 can then be applied to Arabic word images within the text lines, instead of whole text lines.

Word Based Arabic Text Feature Extraction from Line Images

Referring to FIGS. 11-12, steps 1200-1210 are similar to steps 100-110 in FIG. 1. An Arabic corpus is built using an intelligent adaptive method that determines and tracks writing styles of the Arabic text (step 1200). Writing-style indices are stored in association with the Arabic text files (step 1205). A text image (e.g. 1100 in FIG. 11) is acquired from a document (e.g. 1000 in FIG. 11) (step 1210). The text image may include multiple text lines (e.g. 1111-1114 in FIG. 11). Each of the text lines includes one or more Arabic words.

The text image is then segmented into multiple words (e.g. 1121-1123, FIG. 11) (step 1215). The separations between Arabic words are identified based on a predetermined threshold. First, two adjacent strings of Arabic characters are identified as potentially separate Arabic words. The predetermined threshold can for example be a fraction (e.g. 3/2, ⅓ etc.) of the average empirically measured spacing between sub-words in a row of text. A boundary between successive words is determined when the horizontal spacing between two potential words (two adjacent strings of Arabic characters) exceeds the predetermined threshold.

Steps 1220-1270 are similar to steps 120 to 170 in FIG. 1 except that the analyses are based on an Arabic word rather than based on a line of Arabic text.

A word (e.g. 1121-1123, FIG. 11) is divided into a plurality of line images 311-313 as shown in FIG. 3A (step 1220) in similar ways as how the line image 211 is divided into line images.

A line image 311, 312, or 313 is then divided into pixels 321-323 each assigned with a pixel value as shown in FIGS. 3B, 3C (step 1230). The width of a line image 311, 312, or 313 can be between 2 pixels to 100 pixels, or in a range from 3 pixels to 10 pixels. A line image 311, 312, or 313 can include a portion of a character, a complete character, or joint characters, which is part the Arabic word being analyzed.

Text feature vectors are then extracted from the word (e.g. 1121-1123, FIG. 11) or the line images (311-313 in FIG. 3A) (step 1240). The feature vectors obtained in step 140 are next fed into a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) (step 1250). The HMM can be trained using feature vectors obtained from Arabic text and associated ground truth in the Arabic corpus in accordance with writing styles of the Arabic text (step 1260). The trained HMM is then used to recognize Arabic text in the feature vectors using a dictionary and a language model (step 1270). Other details of recognizing Arabic text is disclosed above in relation to FIGS. 1-3C.

Word Based Arabic Text Feature Extraction from a Group of Pixels in a Line Image

In some embodiments, the method disclosed in the flowchart in FIG. 5 can be based on analyzing individual Arabic words instead of a whole line of Arabic text. Referring to FIGS. 3A-5, 11 and 13, an Arabic corpus is built using an intelligent adaptive method that determines and tracks writing styles of the Arabic text (step 500, FIG. 5). As discussed in more detail in relation to FIGS. 9 and 10, the Arabic corpus includes text and text images and the ground truth (i.e. known meanings) associated with the text or text images in accordance with the present invention. The corpus building takes into account of many writing styles and formats in Arabic text, and the text files in the disclosed Arabic corpus are properly labeled by the types of Arabic writing styles or formats, which increases the accuracy of Arabic character recognition when the disclosed Arabic Corpus is used.

Writing-style indices are stored in association with the Arabic text files (step 505). The writing-style indices each indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles.

An Arabic text image (e.g. 1101-1103 in FIG. 11) is obtained from the Arabic text files (step 1310, FIG. 13). Lines of text (e.g. 1111-1114 in FIG. 11) are identified in the Arabic text image (step 1320, FIG. 13). A line of text (e.g. 1111 in FIG. 11) is segmented into Arabic words (e.g. 1121-1123 in FIG. 11) (step 1330, FIG. 13). An Arabic word (e.g. 1121-1123 in FIG. 11) is divided into multiple line images 311-313 (FIG. 3A) (step 1330, FIG. 13).

The line image 311-313 generated by the corpus builder is digitized into an array of pixels 321-323 each characterized by a pixel value (step 510, FIG. 5). The line image 311, as shown in FIG. 4, is divided into a plurality of cells 410-460 (step 520, FIG. 5). Each cell 410-460 includes a group of adjacent pixels, such as an array of 3 by 3 pixels. For example, the cell 420 includes pixels 422, 423 and other pixels.

The pixel values in each cell are next represented by a binary cell number (step 530, FIG. 5). The pixel values in each cell are first serialized. For example, the nine pixels 322-323 in the cell 420 are serialized in the order of the three consecutive rows: 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0. The series of binary pixel values are then mapped to a 9 bit binary cell number. The pixel value in the pixel 322 is mapped to the most significant bit while the pixel value in the pixel 323 is mapped to the least significant bit. As a result, the pixel values in the cell 420 are represented by a 9-bit binary cell number 111100100. Similarly, pixel values in the cells 410-460 are converted to binary cell numbers 480, each of which being in a range between 0 and 511.

The binary cell numbers in the cells of a line image 311 are next converted to decimal cell numbers 490 (step 540, FIG. 5). The decimal cell numbers 490 are then serialized to from a feature vector for the line image 311 (step 550, FIG. 5). The steps 520-550 are repeated for different line images.

Similar to step 160 (FIG. 1), a HMM can be trained using feature vectors obtained from Arabic text and associated ground truth in the Arabic corpus in accordance with writing styles of the Arabic text (step 560). As discussed below in relation with FIGS. 9 and 10, the writing styles are indicated by writing-style indices stored in association with the Arabic text files. The feature vectors from the different line images 311-313 are then fed into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize Arabic characters in the text line (step 570, FIG. 5).

The extraction method described above in conjunction with FIGS. 4-5 represents an implementation of the text feature extract for the process illustrated in FIG. 1. It should be understood that the above described text feature extraction methods are compatible with multi bit pixel values and other numerical representations in the data string. For example, pixel values can be represented by 3-bit or 5-bit binary numbers, which can capture grayscale information (or multi-tone) in the text image. Multi-bit pixel values may improve accuracy of describing text features along the edges of the strokes.

Moreover, instead of a binary number, the pixel value can be represented in any number range between a minimum value and a maximum value. In some implementations, the pixel values can be linearly scaled (or normalized) to a predetermined range such as [0, 1] or [−1, 1]. The pixel values can then be quantized. Feature vectors can be obtained similar to the steps 530-550.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 6, a line image 610 is scaled down in resolution (i.e. downsized) to form a downsized line image 620. For example, the line image 610 can have a height of 60 pixels. The downsized line image 620 can have a height of 20 pixels, a factor ⅓ in dimensions. The downsized line image 620 is digitized to form an array 630 of pixels each represented by a pixel value. The pixel values in each column in the array 630 are serialized to form a binary number. The binary numbers from the different columns form a data string 640, which forms a feature vector. Feature vectors obtained from line images of a text line can be fed into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize Arabic characters in the text line (step 570, FIG. 5).

Word Based Arabic Text Feature Extraction from Columns of Pixels in a Line Image

In some embodiments, the method disclosed in the flowchart in FIG. 5 can be based on analyzing individual Arabic words instead of a whole line of Arabic text. Referring to FIGS. 7A-8, 11 and 14, an Arabic text image (e.g. 1101-1103 in FIG. 11) is obtained from the Arabic text files (step 1410, FIG. 14). Lines of text (e.g. 1111-1114 in FIG. 11) are identified in the Arabic text image (step 1420, FIG. 14). A line of text (e.g. 1111 in FIG. 11) is segmented into Arabic words (e.g. 1121-1123 in FIG. 11) (step 1430, FIG. 14). An Arabic word (e.g. 1121-1123 in FIG. 11) is divided into multiple line images 311-313 (FIG. 3A) (step 1430, FIG. 14). Next, steps 810-870 are conducted to digitize the line images, and form feature vector values based on binary pixel values as described above in relation to FIGS. 7A-8.

An advantage of the above disclosed word-based Arabic text recognition methods is that often times, words are not neatly lined up horizontally, which result in wide lines (large height in the text lines) with blank space above or below the words, as well as between words. In comparison with the line based text recognition methods, the word based methods can thus focus better on image areas that contain real information.

Another advantage of the above disclosed word-based Arabic text recognition methods is that feature vectors can be more precisely developed because words carry the most basic units of meaning The delineation of boundaries between adjacent words can significantly reduce interferences between feature vectors for the characters between adjacent words.

It should be understood that the above described methods are not limited to the specific examples used. Configurations can vary without deviating from the spirit of the invention. For example, the cut-off transition number can be selected to be other than six. The height and the width of the line image as well as the size of the cells within the line m images can also be different from the examples used above. The form of the text feature vectors can vary depending on the extraction methods. For example, a feature vector can be in the form of a string of binary numbers, decimal numbers, or numbers in other numerical systems. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for automatically recognizing Arabic text, comprising: acquiring a text image comprising one or more Arabic words each including one or more Arabic characters; identify a plurality of lines of Arabic text in the text image; segmenting one of the plurality of lines of Arabic text into Arabic words; digitizing at least one of the Arabic words to form a two-dimensional array of pixels each associated with a pixel value, wherein the pixel value is expressed in a binary number; dividing the one of the Arabic words into a plurality of line images; defining a plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images, wherein each of the plurality of cells comprises a group of adjacent pixels; serializing pixel values of pixels in each of the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images to form a binary cell number; forming a text feature vector according to binary cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in one of the plurality of line images; and feeding the text feature vector into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize the one or more Arabic words including the Arabic characters.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: converting the binary cell number into a decimal cell number; serializing the decimal cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in the one of the plurality of line images to form the string of decimal cell numbers; and forming the text feature vector in accordance to a string of decimal cell numbers obtained from the plurality of cells in the one of the plurality of line images.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: building an Arabic corpus comprising Arabic text files and ground truths corresponding to each of the Arabic text files, wherein the Arabic text files include Arabic texts written in different writing styles; and storing writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files by a computer, wherein each of the writing-style indices indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles, wherein the Hidden Markov Model is trained using the Arabic text files and ground truths in the Arabic corpus in accordance with the writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the writing styles specify with or without punctuation in the Arabic text.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the writing styles specify with or without vowelization in the Arabic text.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the writing styles specify the existence or nonexistence of a non-Arabic text in the Arabic text files.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of building an Arabic corpus comprises: automatically determining a writing style associated with one of the Arabic text files by the computer, wherein a writing-style index associated corresponding to the writing style is automatically stored in association with the one of the Arabic text files.
 8. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of segmenting one of the plurality of lines of Arabic text into Arabic words comprises: identifying two adjacent strings of Arabic characters as potential adjacent words; comparing a spacing between the two adjacent strings of Arabic characters to a predetermined threshold; and a word boundary is determined between two adjacent strings of Arabic characters when the spacing between the two adjacent strings of Arabic characters exceeds the predetermined threshold.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional array of pixels comprises a plurality of rows in a first direction and a plurality of columns in a second direction, wherein the Arabic characters in the one of the Arabic words are aligned substantially along the first direction, wherein the plurality of line images are sequentially aligned along the first direction.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the two-dimensional array of pixels comprises N number of rows of pixels, wherein at least one of the plurality of line images has a height defined by M number of rows in the first direction and a width defined by N number of columns in the second direction, wherein M and N are integers.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein N is in a range between 2 and about
 100. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the pixel values in the two-dimensional array of pixels are expressed in single-bit binary numbers.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the pixel values in the two-dimensional array of pixels are expressed in multi-bit binary numbers.
 14. A method for automatically recognizing Arabic text, comprising: acquiring a text image comprising one or more Arabic words each including one or more Arabic characters; identify a plurality of lines of Arabic text in the text image; segmenting one of the plurality of lines of text into Arabic words; digitizing at least one of the Arabic words to form a two-dimensional array of pixels each associated with a pixel value, wherein the pixel value is expressed in a binary number; dividing the one of the Arabic words into a plurality of line images; downsizing at least one of the plurality of line images to produce a downsized line image; serializing pixel values of pixels in each column of the downsized line image to form a string of serialized numbers, wherein the string of serialized numbers forms a text feature vector; and feeding the text feature vector into a Hidden Markov Model to recognize the one or more Arabic words including the Arabic characters.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the two-dimensional array of pixels comprises a plurality of rows in a first direction and a plurality of columns in a second direction, wherein the Arabic characters in the one of the Arabic words are aligned substantially along the first direction, wherein the plurality of line images are sequentially aligned along the first direction.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the two-dimensional array of pixels comprises N number of rows of pixels, wherein at least one of the plurality of line images has a height defined by M number of rows in the first direction and a width defined by N number of columns in the second direction, wherein M and N are integers.
 17. The method of claim 14, further comprising: building an Arabic corpus comprising Arabic text files and ground truths corresponding to each of the Arabic text files, wherein the Arabic text files include Arabic texts written in different writing styles; and storing writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files by a computer, wherein each of the writing-style indices indicates that one of the Arabic text files is written in one of the writing styles, wherein the Hidden Markov Model is trained using the Arabic text files and ground truths in the Arabic corpus in accordance with the writing-style indices in association with the Arabic text files.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the writing styles specify with or without punctuation in the Arabic text, with or without vowelization in the Arabic text, and the existence or nonexistence of a non-Arabic text in the Arabic text files.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of segmenting one of the plurality of lines of Arabic text into Arabic words comprises: identifying two adjacent strings of Arabic characters as potential adjacent words; comparing a spacing between the two adjacent strings of Arabic characters to a predetermined threshold; and a word boundary is determined between two adjacent strings of Arabic characters when the spacing between the two adjacent strings of Arabic characters exceeds the predetermined threshold.
 20. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of building an Arabic corpus comprises: automatically determining a writing style associated with one of the Arabic text files by the computer, wherein a writing-style index associated corresponding to the writing style is automatically stored in association with the one of the Arabic text files. 